HELENA, Mont. — Montana’s Post-Election Audit process is officially underway, Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen announced Tuesday. The state’s new post-election audit procedures will be conducted statewide for the first time in Montana’s history.
The Montana State Board of Canvassers—representatives from the Attorney General’s Office, Office of Public Instruction, and State Auditor’s Office—convened at the State Capitol on Tuesday morning to randomly select the races and precincts to be audited for the post-election audit. Participants took turns rolling dice to determine the selections.
Montana’s Postelection Audit Act requires manually hand counting the votes of the selected races to compare with the previously tabulated results. Laws passed by the 2023 Legislature expanded Montana’s Postelection Audit Act, increasing the number of races included in the post-election audit (SB 197) and removing the exemption for those counties that tabulate results by hand counting (SB 254).
“Montana has numerous election best practices, and one of the greatest strengths in our election procedure is the use of paper ballots,” said Secretary Jacobsen. “These ballots are an important piece to Montana’s post-election audit laws and another example of the quality-control measures implemented in Montana.”
The Secretary of State’s website contains the list of random-sample audit selections from Tuesday’s meeting. Counties across the state will begin conducting the post-election audit procedure before completing their county canvassing by June 18. The State Canvass is currently scheduled for June 27.
